Friendship ties in the church and depressive symptoms: Exploring variations by age

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between having close friends in church and depressive symptoms. Three hypotheses are evaluated. The first specifies that older adults are more likely than younger people to have a greater proportion of friends in the place where they worship. The second specifies that having more friends at church will be associated with fewer symptoms of depression. The third hypothesis predicts that the impact of friends at church will become progressively stronger in successively older age groups. Data from a nationwide survey reveal that older adults do not have more friends at church than younger people. However the findings further indicate that having friends at church tends to reduce depressive symptomatology, but only among older people.